Postgame: Sporting Kansas City

By: Adam Jardy

The Columbus Dispatch - September 08, 2013 12:48 AM

As the week progressed, a worry remained in the back of the mind of Brian Bliss. After being
publicly announced as the Crew’s interim coach Monday morning, Bliss led the Crew to an inspired
2-0 home win Wednesday night against a Houston team it was chasing in the Eastern Conference
standings.

But as the Crew prepared for Saturday night’s road game with Sporting Kansas City, Bliss was
aware of the potential for a letdown.

“You see it happen all the time when you have a big game and you have an emotional letdown the
next time out,” he told The Dispatch in a phone call. “It’s a short turnaround and we’re asking a
lot of the guys to build themselves back up with that. It was tough and you thought about it but
you handle it as best you can.”

Those worries proved well-founded as the Crew was largely outplayed from the opening whistle in
a 3-0 loss to Kansas City in which the visitors recorded just one shot on goal.

“I think it’s definitely difficult (to maintain that energy), especially at this time in the
season when there are a lot of teams that are really in the thick of the playoff hunt and teams are
flying,” he said. “They were buzzing tonight and we had that initial surge of energy Wednesday.
That’s what we need to have … and we didn’t do that.”

No PipaTo make matters worse, the Crew had been planning on the return of designated player Federico
Higuain after serving a two-game suspension. Instead, he suffered a left adductor strain in the
closing moments of Friday’s training session and did not make the trip.

“Obviously it would be nice to have him on the field,” Wahl said. “He’s a big part of this
program and we have to move on and hope other guys can do the job. Having him on the field helps us
win.”

The injury is not believed to be serious, but it marked the first game Higuain has missed in his
Crew career due to injury. After Ryan Finley and Dominic Oduro created a number of chances
Wednesday against the Dynamo, Bliss said Higuain had a new role planned in the Crew attack.

“We worked pretty much the last couple of days with Pipa scheduled to play in the middle of the
park,” Bliss said in the postgame press conference. “We had a role carved out for him but he went
down at the last minute and we had to make a change. There was a little bit of continuity there,
but as a group he’s our leader. When he dropped out, it’s a blow to the staff and it’s also a blow
to the guys he plays with because we lean on him a little bit. Maybe on the psychological end it
was a blow.”

Higuain is tied for the team lead with nine goals and leads the Crew with six assists.

“We lean on Federico a lot, man,” Bliss added later. “He’s our DP. He can shoulder some more of
the burden in terms of possession and when it comes to making a better decision on the ball or
making a pass that breaks that initial pressure to create some breathing room. Not having him and
Chad going out (early), that also took a tool on us as well. He’s another guy who is a leader on
our squad and the guys can get down when a guy like Federico is injured and can’t play and Chad
(Marshall) leaves the game. It affects the guys around them as well.”

Marshall injuredAs Bliss mentioned, the Crew also lost the services of central defender and acting captain
Chad Marshall when he suffered a quad contusion and had to leave in the 28th minute. He was
replaced by Danny O’Rourke, who had missed Wednesday’s game due to suspension.

“Danny did a great job filling in,” Wahl said. “It was a big loss, but it’s not the reason we
lost the game.”

Bliss said Marshall was kneed in the middle of the quad by Sporting forward C.J. Sapong.

When Marshall left the game, Bliss was missing six players who were in the opening-day starting
lineup due to injury: midfielder Eddie Gaven (torn ACL), defenders Gláuber (torn ACL) and Josh
Williams (head) and goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum (shoulder) in addition to Higuain and Williams.

As for Marshall, Bliss said, “It’s going to take time for (the injury) to settle.”

“A couple injuries here and there during the week so I had to come back with the same guys from
Wednesday who really put out a yeoman’s effort against Houston. I’m sure there were some tired
legs, but probably more in the psychological and mental.”

Offensive offenseAfter one of the more entertaining games of the season, the Crew struggled to put together
much on the offensive end against a Sporting club missing two of its own stars – defender Matt
Besler and midfielder Graham Zusi, both of whom are on national team duty.

“I think we had a few chances in the first half,” Finley said. “There was that one through ball
for me and Dom had a couple and we had some free kicks too. It’s tough. They play with three in the
middle and all three of them are quality players.”

Bliss has talked about having possessions result in “actions of consequence,” be they crosses,
dangerous passes or shot attempts. The Crew had six shots and just one on target, and their number
of passes in the attacking third (63) compared to that of Kansas City (95) help demonstrate the
team’s struggles.

When I asked Bliss what was missing on offense, he said, “Decisive action, whether it’s a cross
or a second guess or the guys cut it back one time too many. It’s easy to say we didn’t hold onto
the ball, but when you’re playing longer balls there against guys like (Aurelien) Collin in the air
it’s not an easy task for those guys up front. We were a little bit indecisive when we got into the
final third, which was a little different than it was against Houston.

“You get thrown into the deep end right away,” he said during the press conference. “You have
two games in a week instead of a whole week to train and ease into it. It’s a tough week to jump in
there, but I thought our guys responded well Wednesday. Today was just a tough one. Kansas City’s
no slouch.”